Europa 2013

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We had a challenging day today. Our first day using our Eurorail pass. We had done our homework yesterday to make sure that we knew which railway station we needed to depart from and which platform we needed to be on so no problems in that regard. We had even activated the pass yesterday which you have to do on your first train journey. Organised and all good. We had two regional trains to catch to get to Bruges. The first train was from The Hague to Antwerp and then we had to transfer to a connecting train which was to take us the rest of the way to Bruges. Again all good except I was a little anxious that there was only 17 minutes between the first train arriving in Antwerp and the second departing for Bruges. I had mentioned it to our travel agent back home but she had ensured me that there would be no problem and that 17 minutes was plenty of time to transfer from one train to another. Besides which Antwerp station was only a small station and it would take no time at all to get from one train to the next. Right? Wrong! Our train from The Hague had to stop before we reached Antwerp because of a computer malfunction which meant that we were 10 minutes behind schedule. When we finally arrived at Antwerp we had 7 minutes to get to the connecting train. One problem . . . Antwerp is not a small station . . . it's not even a big station . . . it's huge! The station has three levels! So there we were running up escalators to try to get to our train. To add to our dilemma the signage was in Flemish, no English translation as had been the case in all the train stations in Holland. Now with a little perseverance I can read a little Dutch which is not dissimilar to Flemish but when you're in a hurry it just looked like, well, French! Of course we missed the train, along with everyone else who had been on our train from The Hague and were wanting to get to Bruges. Eventually we were able to determine that there was another train leaving for Bruges in and hour so all good. The young woman at the information counter checked and showed me the schedule and I asked her to write down the details for me so that we would have the necessary information at hand. I had seen from the schedule that the train would be leaving from Platform 2 so up we went to wait out the hour. Five minutes before the expected departure time we noticed a train on Platform 3 whose signage said it was going to Bruges. We thought we had best check it out so rushed over there and yes the platform from which the train was leaving had changed sometime between when I had sought assistance at the information counter and when the train was due to depart. No indication on the electronic board, no message over the PA system . . . nothing. Not very well organised the Belgians but okay these things happen. All should be okay from here on in. Right? Wrong! We arrived in Bruges, caught a cab to our hotel and went to check in only to be told there had been a mix up in our hotel booking. Not our error, not out travel agent's error but theirs. We were told not to worry as we were being upgraded to their sister hotel the 'Dukes Palace' which was a 5 Star hotel. All well and good but I was so looking forward to staying at the Hotel Casselburgh. It was every bit as lovely as the photos on the website and while the Dukes Palace is equally lovely it's not the hotel I was expecting to stay in. It took a good feed and two glasses of wine for me to get over it! In the meanwhile Clive was looking a little anxious . . .

I can only say that after the day's misadventures it was all worth it. Bruges is every bit as pretty as what people say it is and even more so. Nothing that we've seen on the net or in books does it justice. So very beautiful.

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Photos

Bruges
Dukes Palace Hotel

Brugesl
The Belfort. For those of you who have seen the movie 'In Bruges'. . . "

Bruges
The Palace Provincial

Bruges
The Market Square

Bruges
Clive continues on his beer tasting tour of Europe.

Bruges
Belgium's version of a Cappacino!

Comments

[Glenys]

Hi Henny My girls (when they did their big trip) used to call those days \'train days\' as it took all day, was very stressful and really tested the relationships. Not like being on a holiday but unfortunately necessary to get from A to B. Bruge looks just beautiful so enjoy your time there - now that you are there! Glenys x